NETOPRHM@NCSUVM.BITNET (Hal Meeks) (03/24/88)
This should not be considered a review; just a brief synopsis of
our experience with the Mimetics Amigen up to this point.
I've been helping the Speech Department here set up a A500 for
use in a SVHS editing suite. Money got a little tight, so I suggested
buying an Amigen to get things going until next year's budget, when
they will probably buy either a Progen or Supergen.
It isn't much to look at. A little white box with no controls.
We initially had only a few problems with it. Composite color is
no great shakes, but there was some smearing and color shifting,
which was to be expected, considering it's cost (it is _not_
"broadcast quality" in the true sense of the word). It had
particular problems with reds, which tended to oversaturate.
It would, however, lock down pretty nicely.
Until it started to warm up.
Video became unstable. At times it wouldn't lock well, and
color shifting became much more pronouced.
It has been sent back to the dealer, who says he will send us
another one as soon as he can. The words "production problems"
were used by the dealer, and that has been confirmed by other sources.
I am going to fair, and assume that there were unforseen bugs in
manufacturing that caused these problems. Time will tell. I will
post a full review when we get a new one. In the mean time, if
you are looking for _professional_ video output, you may want
to look at one of the other products that is available. Ideally,
someone will come out with a genlock that will work with SVHS
so we won't have to use composite at all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hal Meeks "Where are the people?"
netoprhm@ncsuvm.bitnet "I converted them all to
hgm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (sometimes) electrical energy.....
but now I am lonely."
3 Stooges - "Have Rocket, Will Travel"